17. Shillai

Indian National Congress held the seat; the winning margin narrowed from 28.1% to 19.2%.

• Won on a lower shareIts own vote share fell 17.5% — it held because the rest of the vote was more divided.
• New challengerIndependent (IND) finished second with 25.6% — it did not contest here in 1998.
• Vote fragmentedThe top two took only 70.3% between them, down from 96.5% — the field split more ways.

Written from the constituency figures by a fixed set of rules — no language model.